Monthly Archives: October 2012

They can tell when you have low blood sugar
Some trained dogs seem to detect low blood sugar levels. According to a 2000 article in the British Medical Journal, more than one-third of dogs living with diabetic people have been reported to display behavioral changes when their owners’ blood sugar drops, sometimes even before patients themselves were aware of it. In two case studies cited by the paper, the dogs not only detected their owners’ falling glucose levels, they even nudged their owners into eating.
It’s unclear how the dogs did it, but it’s possible that they detected minute muscle tremors, or changes in the owners’ scents, according to the study.
And they might be able to learn the skill. Reportedly, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was recently taught to recognize low blood sugar by the Pups in Prison program at the Junee Correctional Centre in Australia, where inmates helped train service dogs

Scientific reports of dogs sniffing out cancerous growths go back at least two decades. According to a 1989 case study in The Lancet, a patient reported that her dog would constantly sniff at a mole on her leg, and once even tried to bite the lesion off. Prompted by this, she had her mole checked out and found it to be a malignant melanoma.

But dogs are not only good at sniffing out skin cancer, some can also detect bladder, lung, breast, ovarian and colon cancer. In fact, a specially trained eight-year-old black Labrador named Panda correctly detected colorectal cancer in 33 out of 37 samples of people’s breath and stool that scientists had collected. Moreover, according to the article in the journal Gut published this year, Panda appeared to be highly accurate at detecting early-stage colorectal cancer.

It’s unclear whether such dogs are zeroing in on some unknown, tumor-related volatile compounds, or more conventional substances in body fluids associated with an increased risk of cancer, such as metabolites of cigarettes, the researchers said. However, in this experiment, Panda identified cancer patients even among body—fluid samples from people with inflammation, a history of smoking, or other diseases.

Some guys go for blonds, some go for brunettes and others are into redheads. And then there are guys who are attracted to Golden Retrievers. According to a survey of 1,000 people conducted by Kloof (a mobile app for pet lovers) and published in the Miami Herald, when it comes to dating, the top dog breed for women to attract men is the Golden Retriever, followed closely by Labrador Retrievers, Chihuahuas, Poodles and Beagles.

For men looking to woo the ladies, the top breed likely to attract a potential girlfriend is the German Shepherd. Similar to their male counterparts, women are also enamored by men who own Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers, as well as Huskies and French Bulldogs

The Kloof survey also noted that although men are likely to date a woman who owns a Chihuahua, they often enter into the relationship thinking the woman is “easy” or “dumb.” Similarly, a woman might find a man who owns a Pit Bull to be “slimy” or “sketchy,” whereas a guy with a Siberian Husky or German Shepherd is viewed as “masculine.”

What do you think? Are these “best breeds for dating” just stereotypes, or is there some truth in the survey’s observations? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.

Beginning at around age 7, your pet enters his or her senior years. At this stage, pets often begin to develop diseases common to their senior human counterparts, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypothyroidism, and cancer. In fact, one out of 10 pets that appears healthy has an underlying disease.1